Throughout various industrial applications, apparatus components are subjected to numerous extreme conditions (e.g., high temperatures, high pressures, large stress loads, etc.). Over time, an apparatus's individual components may suffer creep and/or deformation that may reduce the component's usable life. Such concerns might apply, for instance, to some turbomachines.
Turbomachines are widely utilized in fields such as power generation and aircraft engines. For example, a conventional gas turbine system includes a compressor section, a combustor section, and at least one turbine section. The compressor section is configured to compress air as the air flows through the compressor section. The air is then flowed from the compressor section to the combustor section, where it is mixed with fuel and combusted, generating a hot gas flow. The hot gas flow is provided to the turbine section, which utilizes the hot gas flow by extracting energy from it to power the compressor, an electrical generator, and other various loads.
During operation of a turbomachine, various components (collectively known as turbine components) within the turbomachine and particularly within the turbine section of the turbomachine, such as turbine blades, may be subject to creep due to high temperatures and stresses. For turbine blades, creep may cause portions of or the entire blade to elongate so that the blade tips contact a stationary structure, for example a turbine casing, and potentially cause unwanted vibrations and/or reduced performance during operation.
Accordingly, components, such as turbine components, may be monitored for creep. One approach to monitoring components for creep is to configure strain sensors on the components, and analyze the strain sensors at various intervals to monitor for deformations associated with creep strain.
Known strain sensors typically include a locator element and various analysis elements, and measurements of the analysis elements relative to the locator element are taken at different times and analyzed to monitor for deformation. However, one concern is that the locator element could become damaged or lost during operation of the component, thus rendering subsequent analysis impossible. Another concern is that the strain sensor is required to have multiple elements, such as the locator element and a variety of analysis elements, to facilitate deformation monitoring. Damage to any one element can render the strain sensor not usable.
Accordingly, alternative methods for monitoring components are desired in the art. In particular, methods which provide alternative approaches to the collection of data for deformation analysis would be advantageous.